Cairo vows not to leave Gaza Strip on its own

ESCALATING:While Israel yesterday massed tanks and called up reserves, Egyptian leaders branded its assault as blatant aggression against humanity that has to stop

AFP and AP,
CAIRO, Gaza City and Geneva

Smoke and explosions are seen as a bomb dropped by Israeli warplanes yesterday explodes at an alleged position of Hamas extremists in the northern Gaza Strip.

Photo: EPA

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi yesterday branded an Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, in which 23 Palestinians have been killed, as “blatant aggression against humanity,” Egypt’s official MENA news agency said.

“Egypt will not leave Gaza on its own ... What is happening is a blatant aggression against humanity,” he said, as Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil visited Gaza vowing to boost efforts to secure a truce to end the bloodletting.

“I tell them in the name of all the Egyptian people that the Egypt of today is not the Egypt of yesterday and that the Arabs of today are different than the Arabs of yesterday,” Morsi said after weekly prayers at a Cairo mosque.

“Cairo will not leave Gaza on its own,” he added.

Kandil rushed to the aid of the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers earlier yesterday in the midst of an Israeli offensive there, calling for an end to the operation, as Palestinian rocket squads aimed at Tel Aviv for a second straight day.

Sirens wailed across Israel’s main metropolis moments before an explosion was heard, but police said the rocket appeared to have fallen into the sea.

Israel said it halted its incessant air attacks on militant targets in Gaza during Kandil’s brief visit, though Hamas security claimed that three airstrikes hit the territory during the period. Meanwhile, militants fired off more than 60 rockets after Kandil arrived in Gaza.

Kandil toured Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, accompanied by the territory’s prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who was making his first public appearance since Israel’s offensive began on Wednesday.

In one chaotic moment, a man rushed toward the two leaders, shouting as he held up the body of a four-year-old boy. The two men cradled the lifeless boy who Hamas said was killed in an Israeli airstrike — a claim Israel denied.

Fighting to hold back tears, Kandil told reporters that the Israeli operation must end.

“What I saw today in the hospital, the wounded and the martyrs, the boy ... whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about,” he said.

Israel vociferously denied carrying out any form of attack in the area since the previous night. The pace of cross-border fighting quickly resumed after the Egyptian leader’s departure.

The Israeli military “continues to strike hard against Hamas and is prepared to expand its action into Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The operation began with the assassination of Hamas’ military chief and dozens of airstrikes on rocket launching sites. While Israel claims to have inflicted heavy damage, militants have fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, bringing the entire region to a standstill.

At least 22 Palestinians, including 12 militants and six children, as well as three Israelis have been killed in three days of fierce fighting.

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay yesterday condemned the killing of innocent civilians in the escalating conflict and called on both Israel and Gaza militants to cease hostilities.